The Alien Deep. It’s a place in the sea, thousands of feet beneath the surface, far from the first crack of light, where the planet’s last and greatest secrets hide in the cold darkness of endless night. Dr. Robert Ballard, famed explorer who found the Titanic at its final resting place, takes viewers into these underwater worlds where no man has gone before.

From scientists to surfers, Dr. Ballard and his team travel the world, seeking answers to questions at the root of earth and humanity. Where did life come from? What made the continents? What is the ocean’s engine? Are rogue waves real? Will men ever call the sea home?

To find these answers, Dr. Ballard visits breathtaking sites from volcanoes submerged more than 3,000 feet beneath the Hawaiian islands, to shipwrecks on forgotten ancient Greek trade routes, to cracks in the ocean floor where red-hot magma pours into open water. It is a surreal journey on which the National Geographic Channel’s cameras catch never-before-seen rock formations, lava vents, and unusual species that call the ocean bottom home. With the help of other leaders in their scientific fields, Dr. Ballard works to decode the evidence he finds in this bizarre world.